


Served Cold

by bastet



Category: Revenge (TV)
Genre: Canadian Shack, F/M, Gen, Het, does anyone else remember this show?, ish
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-09 18:13:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 909
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19481308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bastet/pseuds/bastet
Summary: Emily was pretty much the ideal road trip buddy. She never whined, never wanted to stop for a bathroom break, never left half-empty bags of Doritos on the floor.Not that Nolan had ever been on a road trip, not since he was nine, and a family run to the Jersey shore was not exactly a flight over the border with a beautiful socialite who may or may not have been a wanted felon.





	Served Cold

**Author's Note:**

> Written for a Canadian Shack challenge back in 2013, lost in my Google Docs since.

Emily was pretty much the ideal road trip buddy. She never whined, never wanted to stop for a bathroom break, never left half-empty bags of Doritos on the floor.

Not that Nolan had ever been on a road trip, not since he was nine, and a family run to the Jersey shore was not exactly a flight over the border with a beautiful socialite who may or may not have been a wanted felon.

"Just until things...take care of themselves," Emily had said cryptically (this being a day that ended in "y"), already holding his car keys in one hand. Nolan spent the first hour of the trip trying to get the details out of her, but she just plugged in the GPS coordinates and sat with her sphinx-like half-smile in the passenger seat while he drove.

Five hours in, he glanced over at her and found that she had curled up and fallen asleep. Her hair was falling in her face, and he accidentally switched lanes before the honking behind him brought him back to himself.

She didn't wake up, anyway, and he felt a slightly smug smile spread across his face. 

From the beginning of their friendship, he had thought of himself as a sort of babysitter in David's absence, like he had been entrusted with this precious thing that he had to take care of. Never mind that David wasn't coming home at the end of the night to pay him twenty dollars for his trouble. Nolan wasn't a religious man (to say the least), but he wanted to do right by the dead, or at least, the one dead person who had ever given a shit about him in life. 

If Emily was sleeping in his presence, he was probably doing a good job. 

Emily woke as they crossed the border, eyes snapping open in shock before she pinned a sweet smile back on her face for the officers, who didn't seem inclined to give them much trouble after they recognized Nolan.

They kept driving. They left civilization behind, the land around them turning bright with snow and moonlight. It was all very natural and disturbing - when you thought “Emily” and “alone in the wilderness” the logical conclusion was “burying a body,” but the trunk was empty. Nolan had checked when they stopped for gas. 

"The next left," Emily said.

Nolan scoffed, because there was barely a road, but the wooden sign nailed to the tree did say Clarke. "How many cabins did your dad have?"

"It was just the two of us for so long. He said we didn't need too much space because he always wanted me close." Her tone was slightly sad, but as soon as the car stopped she leapt out, boots crunching in the unbroken snow crust. She unlocked the door and strode over to the fireplace, which was surrounded by a large stock of wood.

Nolan wondered blearily if there was an app for this, but Emily didn’t seem stymied. She stacked the wood and lit it with a rolled-up newspaper, flames filling the fireplace in less time than he would have thought possible. 

Nolan whistled. "Hey, I already knew you could start a fire, but without taking out the whole house? Impressive."

She grinned wickedly at him over her shoulder, his favorite Emily expression, brushed off her hands and surveyed the rest of the cabin. There were huge tanks of water in the kitchen, floating with thin layers of ice, and non-perishables in a thick plastic container inside the refrigerator, which was not running. None of the lights were working. Nolan found himself wondering if David had anticipated that his family was destined to run afoul of the law.

He stopped at the door of one of the bedrooms. “Em, has someone been checking on this place?”

“Would sort of obviate the point if anyone knew where it was,” she scoffed. 

He gestured into the room. “Looks like you’ve had a guest, though!”

The mattress and blankets of the bed were a chewed, filthy mess, like an animal had made a nest inside it. Nolan grimaced and glanced around, wondering if it were still there. 

Emily shrugged. “Probably a squirrel.” 

“...and is that what we’ll be eating tonight?” he ventured.

Never phased for long, Emily was already in the other bedroom. “This one’s fine,” she said. “Help me drag it in front of the fire.”

He shrugged at her, nonplussed. 

"It'll be too cold otherwise. We'll have to share," she said, matter-of-factly, as they maneuvered it through the bedroom door. Nolan felt himself blushing.

Well, he was a terrible babysitter. There was a shock.

Curled up under a mountain of blankets with the fire toasting her face, Emily finally seemed to wind down. They sat in silence, watching the fire, until a thought occurred to him.

"There's no internet here, is there."

"Not even running water, currently," she said brightly.

He attempted to glare at her. "Have I ever mentioned that I'd do anything for you?"

Emily dimpled and threaded her arm through his. "Rethinking that now, huh?"

"No," he said, hoping the firelight would disguise his red face. "Not so much."

She leaned her head on his shoulder, laced their fingers together. "You know, I'd do a lot for you, too."

They didn't say anything else, but she held his hand, tight, as they lay down together, and as he buried his face in her hair.


End file.
